In the field of digital photography, a Charge Coupled Device (CCDs) is frequently used in place of chemical film and acts as the image capturing device. The CCD performs an initial conversion of the incoming image into electronic digital data, and this data is then transmitted to some form of digital storage medium such as a disk or flash card. The data once stored in such a controlled environment can be manipulated, viewed electronically, and/or printed using a traditional computer printer.
Prior art digital cameras typically deploy a static CCD behind the lens and/or other mechanical optical equipment to convert the entire incoming image at once into digital data. The resulting resolution and quality of the digital image depends upon the number of pixels available in each of two dimensions in the CCD. Each pixel in a CCD transmits image information pertaining to a defined and relatively small two dimensional space. For example, a commercially available high quality digital camera may comprise a 3,000 by 2,000 pixel array. In this traditional arrangement, the static CCD occupies the entire image plane of the image being photographed, where the image plane is a two dimensional space inside the camera onto which incoming image light is directed. Although CCDs with several thousand pixels in each of two dimensions produce high resolution images, such CCDs are difficult and very expensive to produce.
Scanners have been used to generate digital image data which can later be used to reproduce an image approaching the original image. Such scanners are typically used to reproduce two dimensional images on paper which are inherently static in nature and typically located in extremely close proximity to the scanning equipment. Scanning static two dimensional images does not place high demands upon image data acquisition velocity since the scanner can spend an essentially unlimited amount of time acquiring as much data as needed to move across the length of the document or other item to be scanned since the image of the object being scanned is not changing with time. Such devices are not suitable for reproducing images which are dynamically changing, or which are remotely located from the scanning mechanism.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a digital camera which has a CCD which is relatively easy to manufacture.
There is a further need in the art for a digital camera which produces high resolution digital images while being relatively easy and inexpensive to manufacture.